Global Fútbol

Santander is one of the most recognisable brands in the world and the bank’s role as a respected and established sponsor in the sports industry is a major reason for this. In the recently published 2021 SportsPro 50 Most Marketable Brands Ranking, Santander even finished as high as fourth, only behind Nike, Adidas and Emirates.

The ranking was built using Hookit’s SportGraph, which tracked more than 500,000 social media accounts from across the sports industry to identify which brands are receiving the most exposure, impact and promotion on social media from their sports sponsorships.

For Santander, a brand that isn’t intrinsically part of the practice of sport, to be as high as fourth is impressive. The bank has put in a lot of time and effort to connect with sports fans and, in particular, football fans, launching campaigns such as ‘Football Can’. One of the bank’s initiatives received worldwide acclaim, when Santander launched Fieeld, a device that allows blind supporters to follow the movements and trajectory of the football during matches.

Another reason why Santander is so high in this marketability ranking is the fact that it has been the main sponsor of a league as prestigious as LaLiga since 2016. With Santander and LaLiga working together to add as much value as possible to this partnership, to make it much more than an ordinary naming rights deal, Santander received an estimated $187,006,075 worth of value in the past year, according to the SportsPro and Hookit study.

“The top three brand partnerships by total sponsorship Adjusted Ad Value (AAV) generated were all leagues promoting an official sponsor, such as LaLiga promoting Santander,” SportsPro explained when pointing out the key trends from the ranking.

Santander has been able to achieve such a high value despite working with fewer total promoters than the three brands that were higher in the ranking, with 1,173 compared to Nike’s 16,236, Adidas’ 9,181 and Emirates’ 2,269.

As Scott Tilton, co-founder and chief executive of Hookit, explained: “Santander has the naming rights partnership with LaLiga and that has pushed them towards the top both this year and last year. So, it’s not always down to the sheer number of promoters your brand has. It’s the engagement on the posts. When aligned with leagues like LaLiga, who drive tons and tons of engagement, they’ll get substantial value from that partnership.”

Other LaLiga-affiliated brands in the ranking

It’s not only Santander that has entered this ranking thanks in part to the impact of LaLiga’s promotional social media activity. PUMA, one of LaLiga’s global partners, sit in sixth position. Since 2019, PUMA has been LaLiga’s official technical partner and the company benefits from organic exposure, as the provider of the matchballs, but also from LaLiga activations and promotions that highlight the products PUMA have on the market.

Other LaLiga global partners are on the list too, or in the top 10 for certain industries. For example, Electronic Arts is 18th overall and second in entertainment, Budweiser is 60th overall and eighth in beverages and LiveScore is 252nd overall and ninth in technology. Local partners are rising in these rankings too, such as Dream11, one of LaLiga’s local partners in India, that is ninth overall in this year’s list and first for the gambling sector.

Beyond the partnerships established with LaLiga itself, several Spanish clubs have also contributed to the final standings of the 2021 SportsPro 50 Most Marketable Brands Ranking. Emirates, in third, is the main shirt sponsor of Real Madrid and the airline’s partnerships with the club are especially valuable, while two of FC Barcelona’s sponsors made the top 20, in the form of 15th-ranked Rakuten and 17th-ranked Beko. Then, there’s Betway in 35th, who have had partnerships with several LaLiga clubs in recent years, such as Deportivo Alavés, Levante UD and Real Betis.

With LaLiga matches among the most watched in the world and with fans of Spanish clubs based all across the globe, the power of being associated with the LaLiga brand is huge. Santander are proving this, with their fourth place in the 2021 SportsPro 50 Most Marketable Brands Rankings thanks in part to the partnership with LaLiga. With the current deal between the two industry leaders running to at least 2023, further successes are set to come in the future.